Elizabeth Florio

4 weeks ago | gardenandgun.com | Elizabeth Florio |Gabriela Gomez-Misserian

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, perhaps a touch ironically, “You must hear the bird’s song without attempting to render it into nouns and verbs…Cannot we let the morning be?” Surely the poet and essayist wouldn’t have objected to distilling a few chirps and warbles into music, as Phil Cook does on Appalachia Borealis, a singular new piano album inspired by the winged residents of the North Carolina Piedmont.

1 month ago | gardenandgun.com | Elizabeth Florio |Gabriela Gomez-Misserian

Where: Savannah, GeorgiaWhen: year-roundIf you like: urban escapes, history, dining and drinksWhy you should go: Savannah is fresh off a thirtieth birthday of sorts: The year 1994 had been a momentous one, with John Berendt revealing the city’s seductive underbelly with the publication of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Tom Hanks doling out life lessons from a picturesque downtown bench in Forrest Gump.

1 month ago | gardenandgun.com | Elizabeth Florio |Gabriela Gomez-Misserian

Where: Montgomery, AlabamaWhen: year-roundIf you like: historyWhy you should go: Nestled between a bucolic bend of the Alabama River and active railroad tracks built by enslaved Black people in the nineteenth century, Montgomery’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park opened last year as the third stop in what is known as the Legacy Sites. Each is powerful on its own; taken together, they represent arguably the nation’s most immersive and affecting reckoning with its racist history.

1 month ago | gardenandgun.com | Elizabeth Florio |Gabriela Gomez-Misserian

Where: Atlanta, GeorgiaWhen: year-roundIf you like: history, gardensWhy you should go: When Jimmy Carter died in December at the age of one hundred, the world remembered not just the Georgia peanut farmer who occupied the White House from 1977 to 1981 but the global humanitarian who strove to alleviate suffering for decades after. Both roles are on display in a crescent-shaped cluster of circular buildings crowning a bucolic hilltop near downtown Atlanta.

1 month ago | gardenandgun.com | Elizabeth Florio |Gabriela Gomez-Misserian

Band shakeups, while common enough, usually bring their share of drama. Swapping out your lead singer is an especially delicate move. But Ghost Hounds have managed to do just that without missing a beat in their formidable schedule. Between 2019 and 2023, the country-rock ensemble released four full-length albums while grinding it out on the road, opening for the likes of the Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, ZZ Top, Garth Brooks, and Guns N’ Roses. But frontman Tre Nation decided to pursue other dreams.